It’s Hard to Face Rejection and Still Love People

In today’s search to highlight new writers to you I came across Julie Harris who is a worship pastor in the Nazarene denomination. Her blog title, I Sing Because I’m Free really resonated with me! (Okay, bad pun, perhaps.) Her devotionals all begin in personal experience and after reading many current ones, I settled on this older one from her archives. Click the title to read at source and from there, take a few minutes to read more recently written pieces.

Rejected

While I was out running errands today, I had a conversation with a stranger who told me she had just quit smoking.  I asked her how long it had been since she had her last smoke.  Just yesterday.  I told her every single moment was a small victory for her to celebrate.  I encouraged her and let her talk about her smoking addiction.  After talking with her for quite some time, I felt the Lord nudging me to invite her to a special service we’re having at our church next week.  It’s something I am really excited about- 9 churches coming together to worship and give thanks… 9 churches in our community uniting as one in Christ Jesus!  With all the division in the world right now, this is the perfect time for this!

I waited until I knew it was the right moment to ask her… Do you go to church? I asked her, nonchalantly.

No- I don’t do that kind of thing.

Well this would be the perfect service to come to then!  I explained how a bunch of churches in our community were coming together…

No, I’m not interested in that.  

And immediately I felt that door slam shut.  She changed the subject quickly, clearly ready to end the conversation at that point. It was awkward, to say the least!

As she continued to make small talk, I started feeling a little sorry for myself.  I’d been rejected.  She didn’t ask me the usual “what church do you go to?” or even say the polite “I’ll think about it”… just a flat out NO. I hate rejection. It’s hard to put yourself out there…to be obedient to invite strangers to church.  Who am I kidding?  It’s hard to just flat have conversations and LOVE people.

I said goodbye and told her that I’d be praying for her as she continued to break the nicotine habit.  “You can DO it!” I told her. Then I then went to my car, feeling like a complete DORK and a REJECT.

And He brought to my mind this verse-

As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.– Isaiah 55

All He asks us to do is be obedient. We throw out the seeds… HE does the watering.

As I drove home, I started to replay the words of our conversation in my mind…and then I looked ahead of me and the license plate in front of me said it all.

On the license plate was this-

GD LOVS U

And in that instant, those feelings of being a complete nerd and a rejected vanished.  He loves you.  And He loves me.  And He loves that stranger I spoke to today.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Galatians 6:9

The Scary E-Word: Evangelism

Today we’re back with First 15 by Craig Denison, a devotional site for the first 15 minutes of your day. There is a lot happening on this site and even within each devotional there is an audio version, related worship songs, and more. So I really hope you’ll click through today, which you can do by clicking the header which follows. You can also follow the audio version on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

• lee esto en español: Read today’s devotional in Spanish

Evangelism

Today we’ll explore the concept of evangelism. There are so many fears and misconceptions wrapped up in this topic, and my hope today is that we’ll simplify it, and get straight to the heart of the issue. As we assess our hearts, may we remain soft and open to the commands and will of God for us.

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Mark 16:15

Devotional

The idea of evangelism has always been terrifying to me. Going up to someone and interrupting their day to tell them about Jesus, no matter how real and good I know him to be, has never been comfortable for me. But you can’t read Scripture and escape God’s command to share the gospel. You can’t read through the New Testament and discount the reality that the disciples gave themselves entirely—to the point of death—that the world might come to know Jesus.

Verses like Mark 16:15-16 couldn’t be more clear. Jesus commands us, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Evangelism is meant to be a part of our normal lives. It’s not just for the few. It’s not just for pastors or the intensely extroverted. It’s for you and me.

When I assess my own heart I discover that my fears related to evangelism are entirely selfish. In fact, I don’t know if I could do something more selfish than hold back the one hope for the world just to protect my own image. Jesus is clear in Mark 16:16 that those who don’t believe in him will be condemned. It’s like I contain the cure for a deadly disease and rather than sacrificing my image to love them by sharing the one cure, I just let them continue to suffer.

In pondering my own heart I realize that the way to engage in evangelism isn’t fixing myself; it’s getting over myself. Is my image really so important that it’s worth condemnation for another? Are the opinions of others really so important to me that I would withhold from them eternal, abundant life with a God who loves them relentlessly and perfectly?

I am made to share God’s light. I have been commissioned by my King to go out and share his heart. It’s time that we obey God’s command in Philippians 2:3: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Sure, people might think I’m weird. Sure, it might be a little awkward. But God is after the hearts of his creation, and he’s called me to help. May we be those who set aside our pride, seek humility, and love others whatever the cost. May we be so bold as to set our eyes on heaven and sacrifice this life for the sake of eternity. And may the world change around us as we humbly and courageously proclaim the goodness of our heavenly Father.

Prayer

1. Meditate on God’s call for you to engage in evangelism.

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15-16

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

2. What are your fears in regard to evangelism? What holds you back from telling others about the good news of God’s unconditional love?

3. Take time to humble yourself before God and others. Ask him for grace to love others above yourself. Set your eyes on him and open your heart to receive his affection.

Go

In Jesus’ conclusion of the Great Commission he tells his disciples, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Our power for evangelism is that God is with us. He doesn’t send us out alone. His love, power, and presence are fully available to us when we seek to share the gospel with others. When you tell others about Jesus, don’t speak of him as if he’s not with you. Don’t pray as if he doesn’t move and work miracles. Instead, share the reality of God’s nearness with a world that needs to be touched by a revelation of his love. May you be empowered to share the gospel with someone today that they might come to know the power and presence of God.

Extended Reading:

Matthew 28 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Matthew 14-28.

Looking for Lepers

Today we’re highlighting a new author, Lydia Shearin, who writes at Soli Deo Gloria. Because this was slightly edited for length, you’re encouraged to click the title below and read this excellent article at her site.

Just one Touch

I have heard people say that the COVID-19 pandemic has been the hardest on extroverts, who have been forced into social isolation by quarantine, and I know many introverts who would debate that statement, but I think we can all agree that there is one group of people who have been hit especially hard by all of the social distancing and safety measures:

Huggers.

We all know at least one of these people who thrive off of physical touch, and will hug anyone and everyone, from their friends and family to the grocery store clerk. To these people, hugs are the best way to communicate greeting, farewell, joy, empathy, sadness, and many more emotions…

…I can’t deny that there is something special about our sense of touch. Have you ever noticed how many different emotions we can communicate through a simple touch on the arm, or a squeeze of the hand? As humans, I don’t think that God intended for us to live 6ft apart from each other. We were meant to be spiritually, emotionally, and physically connected to one another.

As I was pondering these things this morning, I was reminded of a powerful story found in three of the Gospels (Mark 1:40-45, Matthew 8:1-4, and Luke 5:12-16); The story of a leper that Jesus healed. Here is Luke’s version of the story:

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Luke 5:12-16

I believe this is such a powerful story because it shows us the character of Jesus, and gives us insight into how he reacts to us when we bring him our brokenness.

At first glance, this my seem like just one of the many healing stories in the Bible, but for the Jews, Jesus’ response to the leper carries a whole different meaning. For him to reach out and touch a leper would have been shocking, to say the least, and ungodly, to say the worst. To understand this, we have to understand how serious having leprosy was in Jewish times. In those days, leprosy had no cure. You could not just grab some prescription anti-itch cream and put it on. People did not realize that the disease was caused by a bacterial infection that could be easily spread, but they did know that it was very contagious, and so lepers were avoided at all costs. Because leprosy seemed to appear out of the blue, a person who had leprosy was often considered to be stricken and punished by God himself.

If you go back to the Old Testament and read Leviticus 13, you will see that there was a rigorous process to figure out if someone had leprosy, and the chapter lists some of the symptoms to watch out for. I will spare you the nauseating details in case some of you are eating lunch, but trust me when I say that it was bad. Regardless, at the end of that chapter, we get a picture of what life would have been like for a leper:

 “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.”

Leviticus 13:45-46

If a person was found to have a skin disease, they were to be isolated outside of normal society. They couldn’t work, no one could visit them, and no one could touch them. Because of the nature of the disease, they were either in pain or in an unbearable state of numbness all the time, and they had to depend on the generosity of others for their daily food and money. Not only that, their appearance was a badge of shame, as they were required to tear their clothes, wear their hair unkempt and call out that they were ill so that no one would come near them. Imagine if we did that today with other ailments. Imagine having to walk into a grocery store shouting, “Move everybody, lady with cancer coming through!” or “Don’t come near me, I have Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis!” (yes, that is a real disease)   Imagine not being able to see your loved ones or hug your children for years.

In this context, Jesus’ choice to touch the leper was unimaginably shocking, but also so loving. Imagine, after not being able to touch anyone for years, the first touch you feel is that of your savior. that’s powerful. You can be sure that that leper never forgot Jesus’s touch.

But that is not all. There is another deeper, spiritual level to the story. Not only did Jesus heal the man’s body, I believe he forgave the man’s sin and healed his soul as well. That’s a big statement; let me explain. You may have noticed that after Jesus proclaimed the words, “Be clean” over the leper, he commanded the man to go and offer the sacrifices commanded by Moses for cleansing. Why? Not to receive spiritual or physical cleansing (he had already received that), but as “a testimony to them [the priests, scribes and pharisees]”…

…So when Jesus touched the man, he brought him ceremonial cleansing as well as physical cleansing. Yay! But there is one caveat: Anyone who touched a leper was considered to be defiled. In Leviticus 5:3-6 it says:

“³ or if they touch human uncleanness (anything that would make them unclean) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt; ⁴ or if anyone thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil (in any matter one might carelessly swear about) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt— ⁵ when anyone becomes aware that they are guilty in any of these matters, they must confess in what way they have sinned. ⁶ As a penalty for the sin they have committed, they must bring to the Lord a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for them for their sin.” 

According to the law of Moses, If a Jew touches someone who is unclean, he defiles himself and must offer a sin offering to the Lord to be right with him. So when Jesus touched this leper, he literally took upon himself the man’s uncleanliness. Now, although the man has become ceremonially clean from Jesus’ healing touch, Jesus would be considered by the priests and other Jews to be ceremonially unclean. He would not be able to have full communion with God in the temple until he had made the correct sacrifices for sin. But we know something that the Jews of that time didn’t know: Jesus didn’t need to make sacrifices to be reconciled with God after touching the man’s uncleanliness, because he was the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world! Nevertheless, bearing all these factors in mind, it was a deliberate and conscious choice by Jesus to touch this man!

How easy would it have been for Jesus to simply call out to the man from a distance, “You are healed”? He had healed people from a distance before; he would later heal the centurion’s slave from a different part of the city. No one would have thought anything if Jesus stood back at a safe distance and spoke healing over him. The man would have still rejoiced, and the people would have still been amazed. But for this man, love meant reaching out and touching him. Love meant taking the man’s filth onto himself.

How often does God treat us the same way? When we bring ourselves to him, with all of our filth and sin and shame, does God turn away in horror? Does he stand at a safe distance from us and shout “Be Clean”? No. When we fall before his feet with nothing but lust, pride, envy and all the other infectious sins that we bear, he reaches out and pulls us close. He touches us, and takes all of our uncleanliness upon himself so that we can be clean before God.

Praise God we have a savior who is not afraid to get his hands dirty!

Yet we as Christians are often so unlike our Savior. We are quick to judge, but loath to lift a finger to help. When we encounter broken people with messy lives we say, “I don’t want to get into all of that.” We hide behind the walls of our church buildings and proclaim a gospel of radical love that we don’t live, while outside our doors there are hurting people who need the touch of a Savior. When God brings hurting, messy, unbeleivers into our lives, we try to love them from a distance, secretly worrying that their ways will rub off on us and our children.

Well guess what, Christians: Real love is messy.

If you want the Lord to use you to touch people, you must first get close enough to them to touch them yourself. And I don’t mean just physically close enough- I’m talking about removing some of the emotional “protection” barriers we put up and really loving people. And yes, they might curse a lot. And yes, they might have a drinking problem. And yes, you might loose some money, or “waste” some time, or get a little hurt, but love always costs something and if we want to be like Jesus we need to learn to accept the cost.

So my question for you today is this: Who is the leper in your life?

Take Us To Your Leader

“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
-Zechariah 8:23

Over a year ago I copied and pasted this scripture into a devotional draft and then never returned to it. But the verse has been on my mind for quite some time. If we were to carry this principle into the New Testament era, I like the idea of them coming to us; the notion that they (those outside the faith) see something desirable about Christ-followers and want what we have.

Is that the general outlook non-believers have about Christians right now? I’ll leave it to you to check out the Barna Research or Pew Research survey results, but I think you know ahead of time what you’re likely to find.

BibleStudyTools.com quotes John Gill, whose classic commentary takes the Christological approach to this passage and harmonizes the idea of ‘clutching the sleeve’ being parallel to the woman who touched the hem of Christ’s clothing:

…the woman of Samaria knew he was a Jew, ( John 4:9 ) and very probably he wore the fringe the Jews did on the border of his garment.

He continues that ‘going with you’ can mean one of three things,

…either with Christ, resolving to follow him [wherever] he goes; to hold to him the Head; to abide by his truths and ordinances; to walk on in his ways, whatever they suffer for his name’s sake: or with his ministers and people, determining to go along and join with them in all religious exercises…

StudyLight.org quotes another classic commentary from Joseph Benson:

The meaning of the passage, therefore, is, that the heathen should apply themselves to the Christians, particularly to Christian pastors and ministers, for instruction, in order to qualify themselves for admittance into the church.

(The language is interesting in that we rarely hear the unchurched or seekers described as heathen much these days!)

On the forum, Quora.com, a very different answer from reader Ronald Jones. He reads it prophetically, and considering this is Zachariah we’re quoting, it could be argued that this is the only way to read the larger passage where this verse is found:

A time is coming shortly called the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This period of time will last 1,000 years, and will come to pass after the rapture and the tribulation.

During this time, Jesus will reign in Jerusalem and the Israelites will be His emissaries. It will be a time of peace where the people of world will love Christ and long to be with Him. So much so, that they will beg the Jew to bring them to Israel so they may worship Him.

But Quora is a forum where anyone can post comments, and while it breaks up the rhythm here perhaps, it’s important to consider the above Christological interpretations of this passage from the view of Moshe Dawid Kohain, a Jew:

This is a prophecy found in the Tanakh. I’m not sure why Christians read the man that they worship into this verse. This verse is telling them and all others that their religions are not true. That Judaism is the only truth.

The Jews in Zechariah 8:23 are the observant Jews. The ten men from nation are the Christians, Mormons, Hindus, Zoroastrians, atheists, non-observant Jews and so on.

(Responses like this are important to keep in mind when discussing prophetic writings in the Hebrew Scriptures with people for whom those texts represent their Bible!)

The Message Bible renders this passage,

A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“At that time, ten men speaking a variety of languages will grab the sleeve of one Jew, hold tight, and say, ‘Let us go with you. We’ve heard that God is with you.’”

Bible Hub offers some parallel passages:

This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you; they will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will confess to you: ‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.'”
 – Isaiah 45:14

and this New Testament passage:

But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, and the secrets of his heart will be made clear. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!”
– I Cor 14:24-25

I did mention this passage at the end of an article in March, 2016: We were discussing the idea of Christians not keeping company with the world (a valid principle in general) but with necessary allowances for evangelism and, in the case of Zechariah 8:23, the times they come to you.

This is the ultimate goal for the follower of Christ, for them to see the presence of God in both attitudes and actions; and to know who this God is. I love this passage because it’s so much the opposite of Psalm 1:1 (Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.)

In this case the foreigners and strangers want to walk in the counsel of the godly. It’s a complete 180-degree spin on who is hanging out with who!

Let us walk with you for we have heard God is with you. We had a pastor who concluded ten years of ministry with us by saying, “Don’t let people come to you and say, ‘You’ve got a great church.’ Rather, let them say, ‘You’ve got a great God.’”

---

Go Deeper: The citations above are entirely from page one of search engine results. Now it’s your turn. Using the internet or more modern commentaries you already possess, why does our key verse say ten men? (Okay, ten people if you prefer the inclusivity.) There are lots of answers online.

Looking for Disciples Who Look Like Us

Several times at our sister blog we’ve linked to the writing of various authors at The Jagged Word, but we’ve never included his writing here. Today we’re offering you a sample. As usual, send some link love to our featured writers by clicking the title and reading each article at its point of origin.

Collecting vs. Making Disciples

by Joel A. Hess

I often forget a little detail in our Lord’s command to His church in Matthew 28. He says, “Go and make disciples…” Every time I read and reread this almost cliché passage, I am reminded that Jesus tells us He is going to “make” disciples. It will be something done to people. No one will be waiting at the church door knocking to come in. 

“Making disciples” implies that no one is going to “come to the cross,” “come to their senses,” or “sign up on the sign-up sheet” hoping to be selected. No one came to the birth of our Lord except those called by God. No one came to the empty tomb except those expecting to find a dead body. Jesus made every disciple we read about in the New Testament, from Mary and Joseph to Matthew the tax collector and Mary Magdalene.

He did this by the power of His Word and words. Every single person who has come to faith in Christ was once stone-cold dead—worse, an enemy of God. As Jesus says in John 8, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus finds us. We don’t find Him. So He calls Himself the Good Shepherd. He is the “Good” Shepherd because He is the Shepherd David talks about in Psalm 23. But He is also really good at being a Shepherd! Just as God found Adam and Eve and made them into believers of His grace, so He finds lost, scared, dying people and does the same. He does this through His church, that is, through other believers in Christ.

While I give lip service to this directive of Jesus, I often times find myself collecting disciples instead. I think many of us pastors and fellow disciples do the same. It’s our default disposition. We look for people who look like us, believe like us, have the same political views as us, talk like us, and live lives like us. Ironically, it has been my experience that those people are the hardest to convert.

Social media probably hasn’t helped us, and neither has the increasing habit of putting our whole lives into political party categories. By doing so, we put a barrier up before we can even start to share the good news of Christ!

I get it. If we only live by sight and not by faith, it certainly seems impossible that a person bragging about their atheism, their alternative lifestyle, and even their hatred of Christianity would ever be a disciple of Christ. But that is what we all were! We were all made disciples by the power of the Holy Spirit through His Word. No one began with a disposition that was neutral, let alone favorable toward believing in God.

How quickly we are tempted to write people off! How quickly we are tempted to not believe the power of the God’s Word, that is, the Good News, that God does not hold our sins against us but has placed them upon His Son!

The church is not a collection of like-minded people, but a creation of God’s, united in their being found, rescued, and gently made (and being made) into hope-filled, peace-filled believers of Jesus.

May God open my eyes to see my neighbor and my enemy as Jesus sees them: as future disciples.

 

Where Compassion Meets the Refugees – Part Three

In Part One, we looked at the similarity between some North American attitudes toward the Syrian refugee crisis and Jonah’s attitude toward Nineveh.  In Part Two we looked at the three categories of our financial blessing and how we’re commanded to allocate these. However, we stopped short of fully fleshing out the third category.

André Turcotte is a Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor and church planter, and a Canadian Armed Forces chaplain. What follows is adapted from his notes, and not word-for-word. (Some sections in parenthesis today are my additions.)

• • • by André Turcotte

Some of the help we’re able to give will come from this third category…

Margins

^{Leviticus 23:22} “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’”

(This should remind you of another passage, the story of Ruth and Boaz in Ruth 2.)

This is repeated in scripture:

^{Deuteronomy 24:19} When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. ²¹ When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.

^{Leviticus 19:9} “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

(This of course bears on the broader topic of margin. Is there enough in your life generally? There should be some discretionary spending money in your budget.)

The problem is that instead of living with some margin or leftover, many of us are living financially beyond our means. (This would definitely include those who make only the minimum monthly payment on their charge cards, or whose cards are already maxed-out.)

In the New Testament Jesus takes it even further:

^{Luke 12:33} “Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it.

Remember the image of a wheat field from yesterday? Perhaps the most compelling argument for what this means is found in

The Principle of Sowing and Reaping

^{2 Cor. 9:6} Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. ⁷ You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”

All through scripture, God’s rewards generous, cheerful giving; again, not done out of compulsion or duty but joy.

But the natural human response is to say, ‘What’s in it for me?’

God’s blessing

^{8 (NLT)} And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. ⁹ As the Scriptures say,

“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
    Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

¹⁰ For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity [NIV: righteousness] in you.

¹¹ Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

(Note: This should not be interpreted as what is currently called ‘prosperity doctrine.’)

Though our motive should be giving joyfullly to the Lord, God promises to supply, multiply and reward those who are His generous stewards. God multiplies our giving for many purposes.

Multiple effect

^{12 (NIV)} This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³ Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 

Generosity with our money in this instance helps the refugees, shows the unity of the Body of Christ, bears witness to Christ, honors God, and increases our faith in Christ.

 

Where Compassion Meets the Refugees – Part Two

Yesterday we looked at the similarity between North American attitudes toward the Syrian refugee crisis and Jonah’s attitude toward Nineveh. (If you have sensitivities toward the Syrian situation, please note that not all Christians feel this way; we’d like to think it’s just a minority, but the challenge of opening our communities is stretching us and steepening our learning curve!)

André Turcotte is a Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor and church planter, and a Canadian Armed Forces chaplain. What follows is adapted from his notes, and not word-for-word.

• • • by André Turcotte

So what does all in look like when it comes to giving to projects such as this one?

On one extreme end, some could say it means giving all we have to those in need, but practically that would just leave us in that same place (and in some cases diminish our ability to help when future causes arise.)

On the other extreme end, some would just take money they are currently giving to “A” and simply redirect it to “B.”

Obviously we need a new perspective: What it means is realizing that all we have is given to us from the Lord and stewarding all of it for Kingdom purposes is our duty.

To repeat, all in does not mean giving every last cent to others, but rather stewarding every last cent in a way that makes room for the needs of others.

So what do we mean by stewarding everything we have?

‘Everything we have’ can be categorized in 3 ways: First fruits, Middle fruits and margin/leftovers.

Picture in your mind a vast field of wheat. Today not many of us are farmers, so we don’t practice our giving in terms of grain or sheep, but picture a wheat field divided into the following categories:

First fruits

Several times God calls his people to give the first fruits to him — this is constant even at times there were other needs around them.

⁹ Honor the Lord with your wealth,
    with the firstfruits of all your crops;
¹⁰ then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
    and your vats will brim over with new wine.

This is important: Note that taking the tithe or first fruits and redirecting them to the needy is a violation of God’s directive.

Many reading this will say, what about people in need right here in the United States or Canada? It would be an epic fail on the part of God’s people if we

• redirected what would normally be our tithes to engage this need, or
• stopped giving to other local or regional projects to help those who will arrive (or, the current ‘flavor of the month’ charity; the one making the headlines).

On the other hand, saying that we can’t do anything to help those in need because we are ‘tapped out’ or because we have given all our charity money to God is not acceptable either.

This reminds us of the passage where Jesus deals with what were called the Corban rules (which we can cover here as a separate study sometime*) described in Mark 7:

¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ ¹¹ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— ¹² then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.

Rather, our giving should come out of our middle fruits and out of our margins.

Middle fruits

This money is a blessing. It’s the fund that most of us live on. Our family operating budget after we’ve first taken care of giving first fruits to God’s work.

The principle here is to enjoy and wisely use God’s blessings.

^{Ecc. 5:19} Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.

Margins

This is a scriptural principle that I haven’t heard as much teaching on but a principle that is clearly taught in scripture. It’s really the meat of the sermon that attracted me to sharing these notes with you.

But for that one, you’ll have to tune in tomorrow!

---

* In September, 2015, Clarke Dixon looked at an aspect of the Corban laws in this article:  The Conflict Between Tradition and Jesus.

 

Where Compassion Meets the Refugees – Part One

For a few days, I want to share some material that was presented as a sermon by my home church pastor as part of a series that eight area pastors are doing in a 4-week rotation as part of our faith community’s sponsoring of a number of families from Syria. The project is called Better Together, though the name predates the present world conflict and was the name of a similar 6-week pulpit exchange the same churches did two years back before coming together as one body for a Good Friday service in which they gave around $50,000 for a Habitat for Humanity project. (The part we’re looking at today was a collaboration with Clarke Dixon, whose name is most familiar to readers here.)

Sponsoring families of a different faith background, different ethnicity, different linguistic set is extremely stretching for some people, especially people in a rather homogeneous small Canadian town. We tend to look after our own or are drawn to projects where, after a clear proclamation of the gospel, the prospects for conversion are high. Our learning curve as a community is very steep with this project, and will probably become steeper after the first family arrives.

André Turcotte is a Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor, a former (and possibly future) church planter, and a Canadian Armed Forces chaplain. What follows is adapted from his notes, and not word-for-word.

• • • by André Turcotte

The situation we face with Syrian refugees is very similar to that of Jonah, a man called by God to engage people different than himself.

The situation also has some geographic coincidences: Nineveh was part of the Assyrian — even the name is a giveaway — empire; the Assyrians were brutal conquerors who destroyed and abused people. Nineveh is incorporated today in the city of Mosul where ISIS activity made headlines and from where many of the refugees originate.

^{Jonah 1:1 NIV} The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port.

Tarshish, at the far end of the Mediterranean was not only in the opposite direction, the distance was five times the opposite direction.

Most readers here know the basics elements of what happens next. Jonah would love to see the Ninevites destroyed, even though he doesn’t particularly want to be the messenger; but after his rebellion leads to him being tossed overboard by the Tarshish freighter, he has a three-day time-out to reconsider his position.

^{Jonah 2:9a NLT} But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,
    and I will fulfill all my vows.

The overall arc of the story show that Jonah goes and preaches his message while seriously hoping against hope that the Ninevites don’t respond. (This would be like a modern evangelist going to preach in Las Vegas and preparing to give an altar call at the end, but not really expecting anyone to raise a hand or go forward at the end for prayer.) His goal seems to be about himself, about being able to do his ‘prophet thing’ and then, when the city is destroyed, be able to say, ‘See, I told you so.’

It would seem that although Jonah had obeyed is heart was still bent on their destruction.

This raises a serious application point for those of us whose lives have some type of ministry component; those of us who give the money, offer the time, use our gifts, and are busy about church business:

You can be obedient in your action, but your heart is not all in.

Ultimately, Jonah is more concerned with his reputation and personal comfort than the well-being of Nineveh’s 120,000 population.

^4:10a Then the Lord said, … ¹¹ “But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

(So does the idea of refugees in our community — especially in small-town America and Canada make us uncomfortable? I’m sure some would answer yes.)

We learn several things about God in this story, not the least of which is: God wants everybody to come to him and he called you and me to reach them. He is looking for people who are all in.

^{2 Peter 3:9 NIV} The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

So what does all in look like when it comes to giving to projects such as this? Tomorrow we’ll look at scripture teaching on first fruits, middle fruits and margins.

---

We’ve covered Jonah here a couple of times before including twice recently; here are some older ones:

• February 2014: Am I Like Jonah?
• September 2015: The Lostness Around Us

 

 

 

 

The Value of a Soul

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
 Matthew 16:26 NLT

When Bill Hybels founded Willow Creek in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs, one if his guiding principles was “lost people matter to God.” Many of the early ‘pioneers’ of Christianity in North America and Western Europe were consumed by this principle, but often today it is rare to run into people who have such passion.

Henry is a man who would feel absolutely naked if he left the house without a couple of gospel presentation booklets in his shirt pocket. He is driven by the possibility of making contact with people each and every day to share his faith, and I believe that because he is prepared, the opportunities happen.

At the website Go To The Bible, there is a long exposition of today’s key verse. This is just the first point:

The Soul Is So Valuable Because of What Man Is and God’s Purpose for Man

When God had spoken the worlds into being, then when He had prepared this earth with all of its living creatures and swarming life in the seas and the birds that fly in the air and animals and creeping things that live upon the earth, He looked upon it all and saw it was good.

But God was not satisfied. God is love, and love wants an object like unto itself upon which it can bestow its affection. His great Father-heart was hungering for a family of children, so He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And the Scripture says, “In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

The crowning work of all God’s matchless creation is a being from His own hand into whom He has breathed the breath of His own life and who has become a living soul in His image with a capacity to love like God and return the love of God, to respond to and receive that matchless love; with a capacity to think His thoughts, to live His life, to hold fellowship with Him, to walk in communion with Him, to live with Him.

We see God coming down in the cool of the day to walk with the man whom He has made. There is a blessed and holy and wonderful fellowship between the two.

The purpose God had in the creation of man was not only to have a being like unto Himself who could appreciate and respond to His love and upon whom He could lavish His affections and with whom He could have fellowship, but His further purpose was that this man should be the lord of creation and that one day he should reign with Him and share His glory throughout an endless eternity.

What a glorious purpose God had in the creation of man! In the face of that, many men will deliberately turn their backs upon such a destiny, deliberately defeat the purpose of God in their lives and choose to follow the Devil instead! They will be deceived by him and be dragged from that glorious purpose of God into endless night, separated from God. They will be defeated in their lives and rob God of the glory that rightly belongs to Him in every life.

That is why Jesus said, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” He misses that infinite, loving, glorious purpose of God in his life and forfeits the opportunity to share with Him His glory through eternity.

What got me thinking about this today? I was reading about the eleven principles that guided missionary William Carey (1761-1834) in his life devoted to missions. You can read the list for yourself at the blog A Twisted Crown of Thorns.

1. Set an infinite value on immortal souls.
2. Gain all the information you can about “the snares and delusions in which these heathens are held.”
3. Abstain from all English manners which might increase prejudice against the gospel.
4. Watch for all opportunities for doing good, even when you are tired and hot.
5. Make Christ crucified the great subject of your preaching.
6. Earn the people’s confidence by your friendship.
7. Build up the souls that are gathered.
8. Turn the work over to “the native brethren” as soon as possible.
9. Work with all your might to translate the Bible into their languages. Build schools to this end.
10. Stay alert in prayer, wrestling with God until he “famish these idols and cause the heathen to experience the blessedness that is in Christ.”
11. Give yourself totally to this glorious cause. Surrender your time, gifts, strength, families, the very clothes you wear.

We need more people today who will have this same, all consuming passion for the lost.

^{Luke 15:3} Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

 

Seeking the Person of Peace

Luke 9 and 10, along with Matthew 10, deal with the instructions Jesus gives to his disciples before sending them out in two-by-two ministry teams.  One of those instructions is that when they arrive in the town, they are to look for, depending on which translation you use, a “person of peace” or “man of peace” or “son of peace.”

The NIV reads,

⁶ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.

If you read the extended Matthew Henry notes for verses 1-16, you get the very strong impression that the thrust of this passage is that, as they go on their way, the disciples are to search for fertile ground for their message.

This in itself is rather confusing, because we know that, in the parable of the sower, the seed is scattered widely and lands on soil not amenable to growth, soil vulnerable to the elements, and good soil. The disciples seem to be told to go to areas that are already receptive to their message.

As an aside: Have you ever wondered why it seems that so many churches are planted in certain areas creating a glut of houses of worship in those places, while there is dearth of churches in other parts of the country? I recently heard people joking about doing a church plant in Atlanta because, tongue-in-cheek, “Atlanta really needs more churches.”  It does beg the question as to why it appears there is so much activity in some parts of North America, while others seem to be in great need.

The other aspect of this story that should be piquing your curiosity concerns what Jesus sent these disciples out to do. We know that 20th century Evangelism methodology included sending people out two-by-two to knock on doors on residential areas. Further into the 1900s, this method got ‘trademarked’ by Jehovah’s Witnesses and Latter Day Saints (Mormons) to the point where Evangelicals simply stopped doing door-to-door ministry.

But their message was not Christ Jesus crucified, dead, buried for their sins and then risen again defeating death.  Jesus had not yet suffered and died. Jesus had not yet risen from the dead. Their message was, at best, an echo of their rabbi, his twist on familiar ethics as per the Sermon on the Mount; a message of turning from sin, the message that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Still, their apostolic ministry serves as a model for us and the key to that model is that they were sent out in utter dependence upon God.

So while we’ve left some unanswered questions here, I want to move on to why I was focused on this passage today.  As I left for a morning worship gathering, part of my goal was that God would lead me for someone to interact with either before or after the service per se, and the phrase person of peace flashed into my mind, even though I was fully aware of this phrase’s use in an evangelism model.

In the process, I uncovered the following which appears on several different websites. If someone knows where it originates, I will give proper credit.

When it comes to sharing their faith, most people aren’t strategic. Jesus, however, was very strategic in how he modeled evangelism and sharing the Gospel. In fact, He gave us a template for sharing our faith – and yet most people don’t know what that template is.
What Jesus sends the disciples to do is look for the person of peace…and that method is a reproducible strategy. We see it in Luke 9 when Jesus sends out the 12. We see it in the book of Acts with Peter and Cornelius, Paul and Lidia, Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch looking for these people who are people of peace.

6 Marks of a Person of Peace

And what we see in scripture is the person of peace is the one who welcomes you, who will receive who you are, who is open to you, open to what you have to say about Jesus, open to the life you live because of Jesus.

But they’re also someone who serves you. So often when we’re seeking to minister we want to do everything for somebody else, but the person of peace often wants to make a contribution in some way.

So, a person of peace will be one who

• welcomes you

• receives you

• is open to you

• will be open to what you have to say about Jesus

• is open to the life you live because of Jesus

• serves you

A person of peace could be a passing relationship. Sometimes a person of peace is a permanent relationship. But the real question is, “Who are your people of peace?”

Who are the people of peace who are open to you, who welcome you, who serve you, and then you will see that the Kingdom of God is nearby.

That’s a whole lot of things to think about today.  I look forward to your emails and blog comments. For more study review Matthew 10 and Luke 10.

Apologetics in Action

I could write pages and pages about apologetics, but unless you have seen a skilled apologist in action, you don’t really know what it is.

First of all, apologetics is not evangelism, but it may be a thread that runs through evangelism. In the example below, Tony Miano shares with a student. In many ways, Tony is guiding and leading the conversation.

In apologetics, the other person is guiding or leading the conversation; it is the non-Christian that is asking the questions or making the challenge. There is no time for advance preparation in the sense of knowing ahead of time where the dialog is going, but there is perhaps a greater need for preparation of the broadest type. Ravi Zacharias takes questions from the widest mix of people — you can order his Q&A sessions online — and in this particular case, answers questions from Muslim university students.

The body of Christ needs people following both callings. But every Christian is called to always be ready to give an account for those who ask you concerning the hope within you. Or as the NLT has it

^{I Peter 3:15} Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. ^(NLT)

Today’s question: Where does your greater calling  lie, as an evangelist or an apologist?

Devotion or Discipline?

I’ve often said to acquaintances that I appreciate this particular opportunity because it forces me to spend a fixed amount of time either in God’s word, or in areas where others have been contemplating aspects of Christian doctrine or Christian living in the light of scripture.   But I no sooner use the word forces and I realize that word is laden with baggage.  It implies something that I must do, but will only do if forced because it is contrary to my will.

I also know that some people have issues with the approach of author Richard Foster in the book Celebration of Discipline.  They find the term discipline too formal, almost constricting.  These things  — prayer, Bible study, etc. — should be the product of delight not duty.  I love my wife, but I don’t have to set aside times to show this, I try to do this in many ways throughout the day.  (Emphasis on try if you happen to be reading this honey.) For many, an emphasis on the word discipline comes with a belief in performance based religion; we achieve standing before God on the basis of the things we do. They don’t want to embrace a faith that scores points on the basis of hours spent in Bible study or on one’s knees in prayer. They don’t want to feel compelled to do these things, but rather, to do them naturally, organically.

But didn’t Paul tell us that he knows what he wants to do is not always the same as what he does? While we want to spend more time with God, we often need structure to bring that desire into actual activity. While we may not be double minded in the sense that James defines it, we do live in two worlds.  We need to discipline ourselves so that our intentions are actually carried out.

If you’re new to this journey of Christ-following, you may wish a refresher on what the particular disciplines are that we’re referring to.   Donald Whitney reiterates these in his book Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life.  The blog Protheist lists them using the word priorities, which is softer than disciplines, as long as we understand we still need to make priorities.  Here’s the summary:

Spiritual Disciplines

1. Bible Intake

We should strive to read and study the Bible on a daily basis. This helps us to aim our thoughts, desires and lives toward God, thereby drawing closer to him (James 4:8) so that we can walk more fully in his will. During our times of Bible intake, we should seek to memorize, meditate on and apply God’s word. Perhaps this means we only get through one or two verses as a result; but in the end, it is not about the quantity, but rather the quality of your time in the word.

2. Prayer

As Christians, all prayer is heard and all prayer is answered, even though God may not always answer the way we want him to. While sometimes prayer helps us to align our will to God’s, it is also an event where we can thank (Col 4:2), confess (1 Jn 1:9), worship (Heb 12:28-29) and invite (Or beg) God to intervene in a crisis in our lives (Phi 4:6). Though the Bible teaches that God is sovereign, it also teaches that our prayers greatly affect the outcome of events (Luk 11:9-10; Jam 4:2). To get a response from God, we do not have to speak award winning prayers, but he does want us to come in reverence (Heb 5:7) and humility (2 Chr 7:14); expressing our needs, fears, desires and concerns with him.

3. Worship

The act of responding to and focusing on God is to be done by the power of the Spirit by the word of truth (Jhn 4:24). We are encouraged to do this in both private (Rom 12:1) and public (Col 3:16) settings, and is not limited to singing. But rather our lives are to be an act of worship to God as we seek to glorify him and his name in all we say and in all we do (1 Cor 10:31); whether that is through work, play, art, study or speech.

4. Evangelism

Even though we may not all have the spiritual gift of evangelism, we are all called to evangelize in both word and deed (Matt 28:18-20). While we may be afraid of the hearer’s rejection of the Gospel, we must be sure that we measure our success by the careful accurate delivery of the message (1 Cor 3:10), not the recipient’s response (1 Cor 3:6-7). For we are but a postal service that delivers important information, and must not see failure in their rejection of the message but in our refusal to deliver. If you know enough about the gospel to be a Christian, then you know enough to share it with others.

5. Serving

When God calls us, he does not call us to park our cars in idle, but to drive forward with a mission and purpose (Matt 28:18-20)! We are slaves to Christ, who has set us free from our slavery to sin (Rom 6:17-18, 22); and as servants of Jesus, we are workers, not sleepers (1 Cor 4:1). We do not work in an effort to earn our salvation, but we work because it has already been given to us. God has rescued us from the grip of Satan which we so grossly loved, and the depths of Hell which we so badly deserve. How do we repay him? We can’t (Rom 3:19; Gal 2:16). How do we respond? With our lives (Rom 12:1; Eph 4:1).

6. Stewardship

Your time cannot be regained. Each moment that passes is lost forever. While we may not care much now, every moment on earth will be far more valuable at the moment of our death. So as Christians, who have been rescued from our lives of sin, how are we to use our time, our money, our gifts, our talents, our possessions and our knowledge? By understanding that they all ultimately belong to God (Ps 24:1-2; 1 Cor 6:19-20), we give them back to God, the church, our family and our community (Col 3:23-24; Jas 1:27) out of the joy (Rom 14:17; 15:13; Gal 5:22) that God has granted us for the purpose of worshiping the Lord and raising up a generation of Christ followers.

7. Fasting

This is an expected (Matt 16:16) voluntary abstinence from food for private spiritual purposes and not for public declaration (Matt 6:18). We do it to strengthen our prayer lives (Ps 35:13), seek guidance (Acts 13:2), express mourning (Joel 2:12), request deliverance, express repentance, show humility, minister to others, display concern for the work of God, overcome temptation and most importantly, love and worship God. We do not do this as a form of self-inflicted punishment but as a method of communicating sincerity and hope that God will answer our request as we desire.

8. Silence and Solitude

There are many great purposes to getting away by ourselves on a regular basis. Some of these include, following Jesus’ example (Luk 16:12), hearing God’s voice better, worship God, seek restoration, get clear spiritual perspective, pursue God’s will and to help us control our tongue. We are far too addicted to the noise and the sound of our voice. Miniature getaways force us to temporarily mute both to connect with God on a deeper level.

9. Journaling

Do not do this if you are not concerned with spiritual growth; as it is a powerful tool that does just that. It helps us record progress in our Christian life, evaluate ourselves, meditate on matters, express thoughts, clarify insight and track the amazing things that God is always doing in our lives. As Francis Bacon once said, “If a man writes little, he must have a great memory.”

10. Learning

Just as Jesus grew in wisdom (Luk 2:52), so should we seek to do the same. We should be humble and teachable (Col 3:12-13), as we attempt to love God with our mind (Matt 22:37); while seeing our learning as a discipline to live out and not a hobby to play with. For if we are seeking to become more like Christ, we must know what Christ is like, which is why we should seek knowledge as we pursue Christ.

Closing

Of all the disciplines we hold ourselves to, the spiritual disciplines are priceless tools that we can use to greatly enhance our relationship with God. While some are expectations of us, others are simply time tested recommendations.

If you feel stuck in the moment, are not sure how to grow in your walk with Christ, of if you want to read a more thorough explanation of each topic, pick up Whitney’s book on Spiritual Disciplines…

We’ll give the last word on this to Bonhoeffer, via the blog Euangelion:

In his exposition of Jesus’ words in  Matthew 6:16-18 in Nachfolge (“Discipleship”), Bonhoeffer has this to say about the importance of practicing spiritual disciplines such as fasting:

Jesus takes for granted that disciples will keep the pious practice or exercise of fasting. The life of a disciple requires the strict practice of austerity. The only purpose of such practices is to make disciples more willing and more joyous in following the designated path and doing the works required of them. The selfish and lethargic will, which resists being of service, is disciplined; the flesh is chastened and punished. The practice of austerity makes me fell the estrangement of my Christian life from the world. A life which remains without any ascetic discipline, which indulges in all the desires of the flesh as long as they are “permitted” by the justitia civilis [civil order], will find it difficult to enter the service of Christ. Satiated flesh is unwilling to pray and is unfit for self-sacrificing service (158)

Click here for more on this …

What Does it Mean to “Invite Neighbors to Church?”

Seth McBee blogs at McBee’s Musings:

I was on twitter yesterday, when one of my buddies tweeted that we should all be inviting our neighbors to our corporate church gatherings…some would simply say, “you should be inviting your neighbors to church.” I found that pretty interesting.  I started to think…really? After asking for clarification on this, I am not sure I heard what he was saying…but it still convinced me that I needed to write something about this subject.  

Now, back in the day, I would totally agree that I should inviting anyone and everyone to church, but as I have grown in my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, I can’t agree that my purpose in my neighborhood is to get my neighbors to a church gathering.   I am going to show through a few posts:

What is Church?
What is the secular vs sacred?
What Happens at a Church Gathering on Sunday?
Why Would My Neighbors/Friends Want to Go to That?

What is Church?

If you ask most people what church is, most would say it is the thing that you have to wake up early for on a Sunday and then go to.  Church is a thing you go to.  Most people might ask, “Do you go to church?” Church has become a 2 to 3 hour event one attends to make amends with God.   People have many views on how this Sunday should go down, some call it mass, some call it a service and how one goes about those two hours have separated people for centuries.  But, is this really what church is? Is it an event on a Sunday?

What is interesting is that how we “do church” today isn’t actually something we find in the Scriptures.   The term church actually is a gathering of a people.   The church is one that is a people, not an event.  It is a people, not a building.  You don’t go to the church, if you are a follower of Jesus, you, along with others you gather with, are the church.   

So, instead of thinking of a Sunday as “church”, the bible actually speaks of something quite differently.  It would include what happens on Sunday as church, but it would include many other things as “church” as well.  When followers of Jesus gather, they are the church, no matter when they do it, or where they do it at.  So, I am not merely dismissing 2000  years of church history here, but we do need a far wider definition of what it is, or better said, WHO we are.

We have taken this idea of church that Jesus speaks about and have turned it into an institution, which was never meant to be.  And, when you turn it into an institution, it is very easy to hate it, it is easy to stop its movement, it is very easy to misunderstand it and it is very easy to abuse it.  

Jesus has told us many things about his church:

1. The very gates of Hades couldn’t stop it (Matthew 16:18)
2. It would be built on the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done (Matthew 16:13-20)
3. The church, the ones who follow Jesus, would be marked by their love for each other and others (1 John 4:7-21).  

When the church becomes more about an institution and the mere men who run it, none of the above will be true.  It has to be about something more.  If it’s about an institution, the only goal is to make that institution bigger and better and more rich.  What have we seen in the history of the church as an institution? It looks more like a nation trying to force people in through forced conversions (look at the crusades) , it’s run like a business that needs money to run and we try to get people to come to our church because ours is better than the other guys (think recruiting like a headhunter) and we draw lines in the sand and become all about advertising for the sake of our church instead of those other guys.   It really does become a sleazeball paradigm.

This can’t be what Jesus was trying to start when he came.  Especially since you never see Jesus starting a church like a business or institution.   But, he did start a movement of people on a mission sent out by him to show others what he is like.

This is what church is.  We will gather on Sundays, or other days, to celebrate who God is and what he has done.  But, we can’t think that is where our time as the church stops.  We are always the church.   We are always about “our Father’s business” showing people who he is and what he is like, not who we are and what we are like.  This is actually pretty freeing for both me and my neighbor.  I know I am not trying to recruit like a used car salesman and he doesn’t have to be afraid to be my friend waiting for the sales pitch.

The church’s job is simply this: show others what God is like through our actions and our words, and we are to be marked by the love for God and others more than ourselves.  

This is not marked by me doing these things to try and get others to think like me, to get others to go to a building on a Sunday, to get others to be a “Christian.”  NO!  We are to merely show and speak what God is like because we truly love God who loves others.  If you are only showing others what God is like because you want something from them (i.e. get them to “church”, get them baptized, get them like you) that isn’t true love, that is a coercive love, a manipulative love.   I never want my neighbors or friends to think the reason I am nice to them, the reason I throw BBQs, neighborhood breakfasts, 4th of July parties, etc. is to get them to be like me or to get something from them.  How disgusting is that?  Actually, one of the first times one of my neighbors came to a neighborhood breakfast he asked his wife:

Why are they doing this?  Are they trying to sell us something? Are they Avon salesmen?

Pretty funny, yet pretty sad.  Not the neighbors thinking, but the fact that people aren’t nice and loving just for the sake of being nice and loving.

The reason I do all these things is simply because Jesus has been so good to me and he asks for me to show that to others.  God first loved me, so now I can love both God and neighbor.

The real question we should be asking as the church, as followers of Jesus is this:

If I knew my neighbor would never think Jesus is Lord and Saviour, would I continue to pursue them and love them like I love myself?

If the answer is no, or not sure…you are doing these nice things for yourself, not for the sake of God’s glory.   Again, I would love any neighbor/friend that is reading this or that is living life with me to follow Jesus, but that isn’t my end goal.  My end goal is to simply love them, as the church sent out to them, as God loved me.   As my friend will they see and hear the good news of Jesus…yes.  Will it be rammed down their throat like a cold caller for new high speed internet? Not a chance.  

The church is not supposed to be an institution or something you go to.  The church is supposed to, and has always been supposed to, be about being a people of God showing others what God is like through our actions and our words.  Sadly, we are human, and we have failed.  Sadly, I will fail today showing this to my neighbor.  But, again, it’s not about me, it’s about God.  I am a hypocrite.  I am a failure.  But, the good news is that God isn’t a hypocrite.  God isn’t a failure.  He will continue to pursue me, he will continue to forgive me, he will continue to love me, even as I fail in this life…over…and over…and over.  

Let’s not make church about Sunday alone.  Let’s make it about Jesus alone.

~Seth McBee

Click here for part two

How To Do Apologetics (By Someone Who Does it Well)

Ravi Zacharias was recently asked on a radio show what makes a good apologist (defender of the Christian faith.)

He said, “Let me answer the question backwards;” and continued

• a bad apologist deals with the question
• a good apologist deals with the questioner

We can get so locked into ‘winning points’ in a discussion that we lose sight of the person asking the questions.   Jesus looked past the questions — some that we would consider superficial and others we would be less likely to dismiss — and dealt with the heart of the person.

How can I remember to do that the next time I’m in a seemingly ‘confrontation’ faith discussion?

Seeds, Roots, Branches, Fruit

A guy I knew locally, Paul Kern, is now pastoring the Highland Park Wesleyan Church in Ottawa, Ontario the capital city of Canada.  I decided to see what he was up to by checking the church’s website and got more than I bargained for.

This chart shows their purpose as a church.   The third horizontal section is about their particular ministries and won’t make a lot of sense to you and I, but I left it intact, since it shows how a theoretical purpose is played out in practical ways through their weekly programs and special events.

Our purpose at Highland Park Wesleyan Church is simple: We want to be disciples who go out and make disciples.

Many people are at different places on their spiritual journey and the design of our ministry is to meet your spiritual needs where you are and help you along on your Christian path. We believe God wants us to be consistent in our growth and maturity as Christians.

Our plan is similar to many good churches, and is taken directly from the journey Jesus invites us to in the Bible. These are the milestones of our Christian Journey that Highland Park endeavors to help us through as we hear Christ inviting us to: